Enjoy our video of the 2023 Clergy Conference and SYNOD
This year’s Clergy Conference and Synod was held at St. Paul’s Church in Greenville, SC. St. Paul’s recently moved into their beautiful, newly constructed sanctuary last summer. The Rev. T. Brown and his wife Libby hosted over 200 people throughout the weekend. It was a fabulous time of learning, connecting and worship.
Clergy Conference
Our time began with a clergy dinner served by the Project Hope Homeless Ministry. All proceeds of the dinner will go back into the ministry of Project Hope. The clergy and wives were led by The Rev. Dr. Sam Ferguson in the first of three teachings designed for the Clergy Conference: The Shape of Christian Witness Is Congregational, The Shape of Christian Growth Is Congregational and The Shape of Christian Identity Is Congregational.
The Clergy Wives in attendance also gathered for a time of sharing and prayer.
Wilmore Anglican in Wilmore, KY meets on Asbury University Campus and were asked to lead many of the components of the recent Asbury Revival. The shared a video and gave testimony to the powerful movement of God.
SYNOD
This year we added Pre-Synod Workshops and they were a great success. All workshops were packed. The topics covered were Hearing the Voice of God led by The Rev. John Burley; Making Discipleship Real-A Practicum led by The Rt. Rev. Thad Barnum; How Church Planting “Works”? led by the Kardia Team; and Revitalizing the Local Church led by The Rev. Phil Ashey.
Opening Worship begin with Clergy Renewal of Vows followed by St. Paul’s Dinner on the Grounds for Lay and Clergy Delegates served by Project Hope. The business meetiing Saturday morning began with opening prayer and a welcome by Bishop Steve Wood. Bishop Wood followed with his bishop address which included the introduction of new clergy. He noted that the diocese began in 2011 with 18 clergy and we now have 143. He received two Congregations that have moved from Mission Status to Congregation Status. The two congregations are The Gathering Church led by Rector Mike Meyers in Spartanburg, SC and Church of the Vines led by Rector Owen Fulghum in Waynesville, NC
The Rev. Dr. Sam Ferguson led the synod with two talks ‘Does God Care About Gender Identity?’ – Part 1 – Deeper Understanding and Part 2 Compassionate Engagement. They can be found on the Ridley Institute page. https://ridleyinstitute.thinkific.com/courses/gender-identity
Kardia, our church planting movement, presented along with The Rev. Bev Mufflemann of Global Mission Initiative. Before closing in prayer, it was announced that our Clergy Retreat and Synod will be held next year at Church of the Apostles, Raleigh, NC, March14-16, 2024.